The Top Five Interview Questions According To Our Recruiting Pros

Posted May 29, 2014

We can’t tell you not to be nervous going into a job interview—it’s natural to be nervous! But we can help you get ready. We polled our recruiters to come up with the five most common interview questions you can expect, and provided you with some potential answers:

1) “Tell me about yourself.”

It’s not really a question, but many interviewers use this to try to get you talking. Yet most people get tongue-tied! What they really want you to do is talk about your background and your experience, highlighting anything you think is important to the position or the company. This isn’t a prompt for you to tell your life story, nor should it be too personal.

2) “Why do you think you’re the right person for this job?

Sometimes this is even phrased as “Why should we hire you for this job?” Again, don’t make this personal. The interviewer wants to know how what you’ve done in the past will enable you to do this job. Prepare by going over the job description, and for each responsibility listed, think of an example from your past when you’ve done the same thing or something similar. You may not be able to match them all, but that’s all right.

3) “Why do you want to work for us?”

There are two reasons interviewers ask this: they want to know what you know about the company already, and they want to know if you’re really interested in working for them—or if you just want any job with any employer. Do some research. Find out about the company, its history and what’s happening with them currently. You may be able to address the company’s leadership, the mission, the business, the culture or the product as reasons that are important to you.

4) “Why do you want to leave your current job?” (or “Why did you leave your last job?”)

Here, you have to be careful to be honest without being negative. The interviewer wants to make sure the reasons you don’t want your old job won’t also crop up in the new job. They also want to see if you can answer this without sounding critical of your current or previous employer. Try to turn it around by refocusing the answer on what the future employer can provide you, vs. what you’re not getting.

5) “What are your biggest strengths and weaknesses?”

The tough part of this question is the weakness. You need to find one that’s honest but that won’t keep you from getting the job. Try to find something that you can work on, like the ability to give presentations to large groups, and say you hope you can work on that skill at this company—unless of course it’s something you need to do right away! When you talk about your strengths, list some that are relevant to the job.

Hopefully we’ve helped you feel more prepared for your next interview. And if you’re not getting the interviews you want, why not work with us? Call Ambassador Personnel. We’d be happy to discuss how we can help you find your next great opportunity.

If you are looking for temp agencies in Georgia, please give our team a call today.